Our Team
We’re a colorful mix of characters tackling anything – everything – with a combination of gut-instinct & deep data.
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David Zwagemaker
Partner
#1 fan of pen and paper
David’s been around the block. He started his entrepreneurial adventure as a Managing Director at Rocket Internet, a boots-on-the-ground rollercoaster of building up companies from Singapore to Bangladesh, or as he recalls it, “(obviously) the craziest time of my life.”
Afterward, he co-founded painting marketplace Weissmaler together with a former Rocket colleague. His founder days taught him lessons that he keeps with him to this day; “We scaled fast, serving hundreds of clients within months. We raised three seed rounds and hired 30 people within a year. Perhaps we went too fast: the business did not make it in the end.”
At Peak, David brings a hard-analytic skillset and pragmatic day-to-day experience. Part of the sharp-data team, David geeks out over growth metrics, number crunching, and bikes.
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Felicia Nordgård
Partner
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Felicia is Stockholm based to head our Nordics operations. She comes from the finance world and spent three years working for Goldman Sachs in London.
Before joining Peak, she worked at Invenio Growth, a venture strategy firm helping enterprises keep up with disruptive startup innovation. Growing up, she competed for the Swedish national team of rhythmic gymnastics, a sport she is still enthusiastic about. Also contributing to her interest in health and well-being.Links—
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Indra Sharma
Partner
“If you’re very strong you need to be very kind”
Based out of Stockholm , Indra works cross geographies but likes to keep an extra eye on the Nordics. She led the Axel Johnson conglomerate’s VC efforts and previous to that she was responsible for Nordic investments at EQT Ventures. She has an extensive background as an operator and was part of scaling Swedish payment house Bambora Group into a fintech unicorn. Indra is half Indian half Colombian born and raised in Sweden and she speaks five languages fluently. Her international background has nourished her curious nature and she often spends her nights on the phone discussing societal issues instead of sleeping.
Rather than waiting for something to happen, Indra prefers to roll up her sleeves and make it happen. Come rain or come shine – she loves to apply her hands on experience and help founders with whatever they are battling at the moment.
Indra is an advocate for women and minorities within the tech and business world. She is a published author of the book ‘Role models – the women that shape our future’ that she co-wrote to shed light on why entrepreneurship is the key in increasing equality in the world.
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Johan van Mil
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
“Don’t try to please everybody, look for alternative ways to get things done, give 100% on one big goal – and do not move on before it is done.”
A life-long entrepreneur, Johan has built, bought, and sold over 11 companies, from data marketplaces (Adatus) and social marketing software (ReturnSocial) to email marketing platforms (MailMedia), and more. He looks back on these successes – and failures – as lessons of hustle, perseverance, and humility.
Making the move from founder to investor, Johan founded Peak with 5 fellow entrepreneurs in 2008. Over a decade and 4 funds later, he ensures Peak’s entrepreneurial DNA continues on: raise capital from experienced entrepreneurs, invest in genuine people, think in big opportunities.
He is the true embodiment of gut instinct and entrepreneurial power in the Peak team. Be it personally hunting for key hires or closing exits, Johan always has his sleeves rolled up to help our founders think bigger and move faster.
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Kasper de Kock
Finance & compliance manager
The backbone of the team.
Kasper works behind the front lines, running the finance back-office and ensuring we operate like a well-oiled, structured machine.
With his background in auditing at PwC, he has a tireless eye for accounting and business economics. Kasper owns all things from investor and regulatory reporting to compliance.
Beyond numbers, Kasper loves to travel.Links—
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Marin Licina
Entrepreneur in Residence
Product-Market Fitness Instructor
From founding his first company at 14 to building products for billions at Google, Marin learned plenty the hard way. Thankfully by now, he’s mastered faster, smarter ways to understand customers and test ideas. Helping startups launch winning products before they run out of runway.
Before Peak, he spent a decade in Silicon Valley—studying entrepreneurship as a Kauffman Scholar, grinding at early-stage startups, and making products for billions at Google.
All these adventures took him to venture: recruited into Google’s AI fund, as a founding operating partner. Where he helped over a hundred startups like Mural, Streamlit, Oura, Writer, Labelbox, and Myst AI find and perfect their product-market fit.
Today, this is still why Marin comes to work: to help founders succeed faster. That and the free coffee, of course.
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Maximilian Serfling
Investor
“The best ideas are the ones you would have never thought of”
Max is based in Stockholm, complementing our Nordics team by combining a sharp analytical mindset with a passion for innovation. Having a background in finance, he gained operational experience working as Entrepreneur in Residence at a company builder, before honing his investment skills working at two early-stage VCs in Germany.
Max’s innate curiosity led him to study and work across 5 different countries early on in his career and makes him thrive on identifying the most transformative ideas and business models.
Beyond investing, his passion for team sports reflects his collaborative spirit and commitment to working closely with ambitious founders.
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Philippe v. Klitzing
Partner
The industry all-rounder
Philippe’s been around the block, having seen every side of venture – from being a founder to working in fund administration and investing.
Starting out in the founder seat, Philippe co-founded a self-storage startup in France that served over 300 customers and sold to a competitor. For the past 3+ years, Philippe’s been an integral part of an early stage venture fund in charge of running fund administration, building the brand, raising funds from Limited Partners, and leading 4 investments. And previously earned his stripes consulting private equity firms.
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Stefan Bary
Managing Partner
For Stefan, there is no mountain too high or Excel file too big…
Champion of ‘deep data’ at Peak, Stefan got his start in corporate finance at First Dutch advisory and went on to lead entrepreneur-backed Javest Investment Fund. By the time he joined Peak in 2015, Stefan had spent years supporting teams from seed to growth stage and navigating a jungle of fundraising, mergers & acquisitions, financing structures, company valuations, and management buy-outs at an international scale.
Don’t let the financial background fool you, Stefan is our resident philosopher, psychologist, and, thanks to his infamous whiteboard diagrams, our resident artist, too. At Peak, Stefan fights for our founders at every stage, armed with meticulous attention to detail and quick wit.
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Julius Westphal
Investor
Advantage through Network
Julius is an operator-turned-investor. Before joining the investment side, he co-founded a VC-backed company in the fertility space. His firsthand experience as a founder allows him to deeply empathize with entrepreneurial teams, and he is passionate about sharing meaningful insights from the start.
Before his investment career, Julius led Meta’s startup activation program in Germany, collaborating closely with high-growth startups and advising them on go-to-market and growth strategies.
Besides chasing the hottest startups across Europe, Julius is also Peak’s resident DJ with a passion for electronic music. When he’s not behind the decks, you’ll find him on the ski slopes or coming up with new ideas on the golf course.
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Thijs Dijkman
Partner
From slinging stacks to head of Benelux.
Like a true dutchman, Thijs grew up hustling in a pancake restaurant. A long journey from slinging stacks, Thijs now leads all of our Benelux sourcing. He comes from the finance world. Before joining us in 2017, he learned a thing-or-two about global data services at Willis Towers Watson and started investing at The Mutual Fund, a collaborative portfolio managed by investors.
In Peak’s family of big characters, Thijs has both feet on the ground: he is the voice of reason and the bridge between gut instinct and deep data.Links—
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Tim Winter
Investor
People and Growth Enthusiast.
While thinking of unusual stints before entering the investment-scene, Tim might score best in class being the only sausage-dealer-turned-VC (that we know of). No matter if working at Vienna’s best food stand during his studies, on the kickboxing mats or his extensive travels, he believes in connecting with everyone and everywhere in order to learn from the interactions.
From working for early-stage start-ups in Berlin and Munich and for a leading digital strategy consultancy, Tim’s biggest passion is growing numbers and the strategy behind it. Be prepared to spend most of the time with him on your sales approach and go-to-market.
Originally from the beautiful Rhineland in Germany, he joined us initially in our Amsterdam office to reconnect with the city where he spent some of his early childhood years. In January 2024 he relocated to Berlin.
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Tycho Klessens
Investor
“I sit and wait, does an angel contemplate my fate_”
At just 25, he launched his own angel syndicate, a move that underscored his commitment to jump in early, all driven by a clear focus on ambitious and visionary founders.
He is particularly drawn to ambitious founders with visionary projects. Tycho’s belief is unwavering: the heart of a startup’s potential lies in its team and their progressive ideas. Yet, this belief doesn’t deter him from engaging deeply with the analytical side of each venture. Tycho skilfully balances a deep analytical approach with a focus on critical startup metrics.
Beyond the realm of startups and investing, Tycho harbours a profound passion for food, different cultures and cooking, reflecting his investment philosophy: diverse, thoughtful, and perpetually in search of new flavours.
His distinctively Dutch essence—highlighted by a natural tendency for directness —adds an extra layer of character. -
Heleen Dura – van Oord
Founding Partner
“Guts is doing things that others do not dare or do not see.”
Heleen is one of Peak’s founding partners. She previously co-founded international advertising player DQ&A Media and, one of the highlights of her many ventures, built up the LOEY awards to stimulate innovation in online innovation. In the long list of lessons that she learned the hard way, how to say ‘no’ was the most difficult – and the most important, “You can’t do it all. You don’t have to want to do everything.”
For Heleen, entrepreneurship is creating something out of nothing. This is where she helps founders thrive: winning the first customer, building the champion team, and fundraising.Links—
Our Entrepreneurs in Residence.
Founders with the scars to prove it.
Renato Valdés Olmos
Master of Design
Ex-Andreessen Horowitz, Grammarly, Lyft, and Co-Founder of Human.co
Martijn van Berkum
CTO and Founder of BlueConic and GX Software
Dennis Goedgebuure
Growth Marketing Master
Ex-Paypal, Venmo, Fanatics, and Airbnb
Pete Christianson
“The Product Guy”
Ex-MessageBird